Esports in the context of Video game live streaming

A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art (such as games involving an artistic layout such as mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).

There are many types of games; popular formats include board games, video games, online games, and card games. Games can be played in a variety of circumstances, and some can be played even without any materials or company. Games can be played either for enjoyment or for competition; they can be played alone or in teams; they can be played offline or online.

The live streaming of video games is an activity where people broadcast themselves playing games to a live audience online. The practice became popular in the mid-2010s on the US-based site Twitch, before growing to YouTube, Facebook, China-based sites Huya Live, DouYu, and Bilibili, and other services. By 2014, Twitch streams had more traffic than HBO's online streaming service, HBO Go. Professional streamers often combine high-level play and entertaining commentary, and earn income from sponsors, subscriptions, ad revenue, and donations.

Both AAA and indie developers have circumvented rising development costs by utilizing the free advertising live streaming provides. Independent titles such as Fall Guys, Rocket League, and Among Us are examples of games that have experienced a huge increase in player base as a result of streaming. Esports have also gained significant traction and attention from the accessibility of live streaming, and streaming has even been used as a method to raise awareness of social issues and money for charity.

Pixels (marketed as Pixels: The Movie) is a 2015 science fiction action comedy film directed by Chris Columbus from a screenplay by Tim Herlihy and Tim Dowling, based on a story by Herlihy. Loosely adapted from the 2010 short film Pixels by Patrick Jean (who serves as an executive producer on the film), the film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad and Brian Cox. In the film, an alien force misinterprets video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, resulting in them attacking Earth with technological recreations of icons from the games. The President of the United States promptly assembles a team of former arcade champions to lead the planet's defense.

Development on the film began in 2010, when Sandler obtained the rights to Jean's short film via his Happy Madison Productions company and began developing the script with Herlihy. In 2013, Columbus entered talks to direct the film, drawn to the nostalgic homage to 1980s arcade games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders, all of which were licensed for use in the film. Filming took place in Toronto for three months, which involved extensive night shoots and practical sets. Post-production, led by Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks, focused on creating voxelized 3D versions of arcade characters to integrate into the live-action scenes.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. Activision Blizzard currently includes three operating units: Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and King.

Founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. and Vivendi Games, the company owns and operates additional subsidiary studios, as part of Activision, including Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games. Among major intellectual properties produced by Activision Blizzard are Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero, Skylanders, Spyro, Tony Hawk's, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, StarCraft, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush Saga. Under Blizzard Entertainment, it invested in esports initiatives around several of its games, most notably Overwatch and Call of Duty. Activision Blizzard's titles have broken a number of release records. As of March 2018, it was the largest game company in the Americas and Europe in terms of revenue and market capitalization.

Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as streaming, the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non-live broadcast forms of streamed media such as video-on-demand, vlogs and video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.

Livestreaming services encompass a wide variety of topics, including social media, video games, professional sports, and lifecasting. Platforms such as Facebook Live, Periscope, Kuaishou, Douyu, bilibili, YouTube, and 17 include the streaming of scheduled promotions and celebrity events as well as streaming between users, as in videotelephony. Livestreaming sites such as Twitch and Kick have become popular outlets for watching people play video games, such as in esports, Let's Play-style gaming, or speedrunning. Live coverage of sporting events is a common application.

Twitch is an American video live-streaming service popular in video games, including broadcasts of esports competitions. It also offers music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life" streams. Twitch is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv.

Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand. The games shown on Twitch's current homepage are listed according to audience preference and include genres such as real-time strategy games, fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooters.

The Japan Football Association (JFA, Japanese: 日本サッカー協会, romanized: Nihon Sakkā Kyōkai) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football, futsal, beach soccer and efootball in Japan. It is responsible for the national team, as well as club competitions.

The video game industry in China currently is one of the major markets for the global video game industry, where more than half a billion people play video games. Revenues from China make up around 25% of the nearly US$100 billion global video game industry as of 2018. Since 2015, China has exceeded the contribution to the global market from the United States. Because of its market size, China has been described as the "Games Industry Capital of the World" and is home to some of the largest video game companies. China has also been a major factor in the growth of esports, both in player talent and in revenue.

China has not always been a major factor in the industry, having been on the verge of economic recovery during the industry's formulative years in the 1970s and 1980s. With the introduction of the second-generation home gaming consoles in the mid-1980s, a new black market of illegally-imported goods and video game clones arose to avoid the high costs of imports, driving away foreign companies. Notably, China imposed a near-complete ban on video game consoles in 2000, fearing the addiction-like impact of games on its youths; the ban was ultimately lifted in 2015. During that time, China's video game market greatly expanded in the area of computer games (including massively multiplayer online games, browser games, social network games, etc.) and later mobile games, all which could be free to play titles with monetization to appeal to the average lower income of Chinese players. This massive growth from 2007 to 2013 led the games' publishers and operating companies like Tencent and NetEase to become large global companies. Despite the legitimate growth of the industry, China's video game market continues to be offset by illegal importing, copyright violation and intellectual property theft.

Video game culture or gaming culture a worldwide subculture formed by video game enthusiasts. As video games have grown more sophisticated, accessible, and popular over time, they have significantly influenced popular culture, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Video game culture has also evolved with Internet culture and the increasing popularity of mobile games, which has additionally led to an increase in the female demographic that play video games. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a significant increase in video game engagement as well.

People who regularly play video games often identify as "gamers", a term that can be defined as players who enjoys casual gaming, to passionate enthusiasts and professional gaming competitors. As video games become more social with multiplayer and online features, gamers find themselves in growing interconnected social networks. Playing video games can be for both entertainment and competition, as the trend known as electronic sports or esports has become more widely accepted. Video game-focused gaming conventions such as PAX and MAGFest which have become popular social-gathering events among computer enthusiasts since early 21st century. Gaming system reviews and gameplay streamings have also become significant part of this culture.

Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. Following its first commercial video game release, ZZT (1991), the company became Epic MegaGames, Inc. in early 1992 and brought on Mark Rein, who has been its vice president since. After moving the headquarters to Cary in 1999, the studio changed its name to Epic Games.

Epic Games developed Unreal Engine, a commercially available game engine which also powers its internally developed video games like Fortnite and the Unreal, Gears of War, and Infinity Blade series. In 2014, Unreal Engine was named the "most successful videogame engine" by Guinness World Records. Epic Games owns the game developers Psyonix, Mediatonic, and Harmonix, and operates studios in multiple locations around the world. While Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder, Tencent acquired a 48.4% outstanding stake, equating to 40% of total Epic, in the company in 2012, as part of an agreement aimed at moving Epic towards a games as a service model. Following the release of the popular Fortnite Battle Royale in 2017, the company gained additional investments that enabled it to expand its Unreal Engine offerings, establish esports events around Fortnite, and launch the Epic Games Store. As of April 2022, the company has a US$32 billion equity valuation.

Smite is a 2014 free-to-play third-person multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Amazon Luna. In Smite, players control a god, goddess or other mythological figure and take part in team-based combat, using their abilities and tactics against other player-controlled gods and non-player-controlled minions. In most gamemodes, victory is achieved by slaying the opposing team's titan before losing their own.

The game has multiple player versus player (PVP) modes, 130 playable gods, and has a successful esports scene with multiple tournaments, including the annual million-dollar Smite World Championship. As of 2020, Smite has attracted a total of 40 million players. A sequel, Smite 2, was first announced in January 2024, and entered Open Beta in January 2025.

Sport management, also referred to as sport administration, is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organization or business within the sports field. The field of sport management has its origins in physical education departments. The discipline has evolved to incorporate history and sociology. Development of sport management has also extended to esport management growing to a $4.5 billion dollar industry as of 2018. The opportunities in sport management have expanded to include sports marketing, sports media analytics, sports sponsorships and sports facilities management.